The 114th Congress could have as many as 63 freshmen House members. Of those 63 members, a dozen of them or one fifth of the freshmen class have strong connections to the chicken industry. Following are brief biographies of some of those new House members, courtesy of Bloomberg News:
David Bratt (R-VA #7): David Brat rocked the Washington political landscape when he defeated then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the 2014 Republican primary. Brat portrayed Cantor, who prided himself on being a steady brake on President Barack Obama’s agenda, as too willing to cut deals with Democrats and too close to Wall Street. Voters told pollsters that Cantor had spent too much time outside the district, focused on his rise to power, while Brat, a college professor, seemed more personable and at ease in working a crowd.
Brat had little political experience before defeating Cantor. Teaching economics at Randolph-Macon College, he focused on budget policy and served on Virginia’s Joint Advisory Board of Economists. He worked for the Arthur Andersen accounting firm before deciding to attend divinity school. And then, while at divinity school, with the notion of teaching theology and ethics, he realized that most ministers did not understand much about economics and public policy. He earned a master’s degree in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, followed by a doctorate in economics at American University, focusing his dissertation on the economic effects of Calvinism.
He began teaching at Randolph-Macon College in 1996 and became active in Virginia politics, mostly in Republican circles. He also was appointed by Democratic Governor Tim Kaine to an economic advisory panel. He was reappointed by Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.
Brat turned to elective politics in 2011 with a failed bid to win the Republican nomination for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. In the 2014 election, he spent less than $200,000 to unseat the man next in line to become speaker of the House and earned the right to face fellow-Randolph-Macon College professor Jack Trammell in the general election.
Brat said in an e-mail interview that he earned Tea Party support “because, like them, I believe many in the Republican Party have strayed from the party’s basic principles of free markets and fiscal responsibility.”
Alex Mooney (R-WV #2): Mooney describes himself as a “traditional conservative in the mold of Ronald Reagan” and lists as his political role models, in addition to Reagan, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Paul Ryan.
Referring to his days in the Maryland State Senate, Mooney says he “consistently fought for conservative fiscal and social values, including lower taxes, less government spending, protecting our Second Amendment rights, pro-life legislation, job creation, and caring for our seniors.” In the future, he promises he will “stand up to the gun grabbers, the radical pro-abortion zealots, the tax hikers, and out-of-control government agencies such as the EPA and IRS.” And, he vows to “vote against every attempt to increase taxes.”
During his campaign in his new home of West Virginia, Mooney said he supports a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. He would replace the 2010 health-care law with free-market policies that includes allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, changes in tort laws, expanded health savings accounts, and changes in the tax code that would enable individuals to buy health insurance with pre-tax dollars.
Mooney says “building and maintaining roads will be one of my top priorities.” He wants to end the federal government’s “big city transportation schemes” that plow funds into mass transit and takes money away from projects to build roads and bridges. Mooney suggests one way to bolster the Highway Trust Fund is to sell Bureau of Land Management lands.
Mooney joins the chorus of Republicans who have decried what they refer to as the Obama administration’s “war on coal,” that threatens the Mountain State’s economy.
After college, he returned home to Frederick and went to work for the local congressman, Republican Roscoe Bartlett. Later, he worked for the House Republican Conference as a legislative analyst under then-conference chairman John Boehner. In 1998, at age 27, he was elected to the Maryland State Senate, unseating a Republican incumbent in the primary. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2006, becoming known for his pugnacious conservatism in a Democratic-dominated chamber. He was defeated for re-election in 2010, and soon after that he was elected chairman of the Maryland Republican Party.
In 2013, Mooney moved to West Virginia, and in June, shortly after the 2nd District’s Republican lawmaker, Shelley Moore Capito, announced she was running for the Senate, Mooney said he would seek to succeed Capito in the House.
David Rouzer (R-NC # 7): Rouzer is no stranger to Washington. He spent most of his first decade out of college building a Capitol Hill resume. Shortly after graduation, knocking on doors landed him a job in 1995 as coordinator for the political action committee of Jesse Helms, then his state’s senior Republican senator, and who eventually would become a mentor. Rouzer soon joined Helms’s Senate legislative staff, where he served from 1996 to 2000 and again from 2001-2002 as a senior policy adviser.
Rouzer used his political resume to highlight his work on agriculture provisions in two farm bills and the tobacco quota buyout, which he describes as critical for the district. His platform calls for lower taxes, less spending, and replacing President Obama’s 2010 health-care law with market-driven changes to address costs.
Rouzer said he opposes giving a path for citizenship to those in the country illegally and has signed the pledge by Americans for Securing the Border, supporting construction of a double fence across the entire U.S.-Mexican border.
Mark Walker (R-NC # 6): A Baptist minister and former businessman, Walker is squarely in the small-government camp though not a fan of the House Republican leadership. He said during a 2014 primary campaign debate he would not vote to re-elect John Boehner as speaker. Instead, Walker would support South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy because Boehner “takes a weak approach to the president. There’s not a lot of things that I agree with Mr. Boehner on,” he said.
An opponent of the Affordable Care Act, Walker called the law “an example of the federal government’s incompetence and ineffectiveness.” Walker said he favors dismantling social programs that “played a damaging role in stripping away the fabric of the family,” according to his campaign web site.
Walker opposes raising the federal minimum wage, telling the Greensboro News & Record, “we must allow the private sector to dictate our best course.” He said he would vote to impeach President Barack Obama, if given the chance. He has said that an “alternative status” to citizenship should be offered to undocumented immigrants whose children were born in the United States he is “not in favor of separating families.”
Walker has called for revising the tax code yet said he would “oppose any effort to eliminate a tax deduction or credit” without “an offsetting reduction in tax rates.”
A former financing manager for a North Carolina automobile dealership, Walker most recently was associate pastor of music and worship at the Lawndale Baptist Church in Greensboro. At the church, he wrote and directed the annual Greensboro Christmas Spectacular, according to his campaign biography.
